I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to baggage containment enclosures, and particularly to systems designed to contain luggage and other personal or group articles to within the space occupied by a number of successive seats in a commercial passenger vehicle.
II. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The need to securely carry luggage and other personal articles in a passenger vehicle arose as an immediate corollary to the advent of the motorcar, as the solution to the need for passenger transportation. Waterlogged luggage and trails of personal belongings littering long stretches of roads have quickly proved the inadequacy of lashing trunks externally onto vehicles, prompting vehicle designs to include a capacious, enclosed luggage compartment. This, of course, has become a standard feature of automobiles and of inter-city commercial passenger vehicles. Commercial vehicles intended for local passenger transportation however, such as city busses and school busses, typically lack a dedicated luggage compartment, as there is no operational need, normally, for such functionality during their intended use. Nevertheless, school busses and other commercial passenger vehicles normally intended for local routes are, on occasion, used for longer trips, requiring the carriage of personal luggage and, often, personal and group sport equipment, camping gear, and the like (collectively termed “baggage”, hereafter and in the appended claims).
Commonly, on such occasions, baggage is heaped upon and underneath vacant seats, and/or stowed in the centre aisle. Ordinarily, unless the vehicle balance is disrupted or the driver's view is obstructed, this practice poses no serious problem. But should a situation arise where the vehicle must be decelerated rapidly or brought to an abrupt stop, or is involved in an accident, unsecured baggage becomes a serious risk. Baggage objects may become displaced following such events, block the aisle and impede rapid egress and access to injured passengers by emergency response personnel, or be projected violently and strike passengers.
It is always prudent—to reduce the possibility of injury, as described above—to secure or restrain baggage properly when stowed on a car seat or in the cargo area of a station wagon; indeed, several devices are found in the prior art designed for this purpose. In the case of a commercial passenger vehicle, proper baggage stowage is vitally important.
Baggage restraint devices intended for cars appear in several forms in the prior art: containers for small items, which are secured to a car seat by various means (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,582; Alexander, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,893; Jaocbsmeyer, 1997); enclosures of netting or other pliable material, which embrace, at least in part, the seat portion and the backrest of a car seat (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 8,408,642; Reidy, 2013 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,309,102; Davis, 2007); pet enclosures (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,329; Wade, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,813; Aliev 2007); restraining nets for reclining passengers (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,341; Hartigan, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,324; Fligsten, 1986); station wagon cargo area partitions (e.g. US2013221697; Steinbrecher, 2013 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,263; Orsulak, 1975). Although presumably effective in their intended use, none of these solutions is transferable to a multi-passenger commercial vehicle for the containment of a baggage volume that is beyond the capacity of a single seat or bench.
In the commercial realm, baggage restraint devices appear as tonneau nets (e.g.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,310; Lockney, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,174; Ross, 2000), which are essentially rectangular enclosures designed to be fastened to the external cargo bed of a truck, and are not easily adaptable to encompass a plurality of seats in a passenger vehicle; barriers and partitions designed to separate the cargo area from the operator (e.g. US2001033084; Murray, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,970; Bateman, 2006), which are essentially planiform in shape and, again, are not adaptable to flexibly contain baggage to within any plurality of seats in a commercial passenger vehicle; sectioning devices (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,486; Green, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,958; Goeden, 1992 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,498A; Cox, 1988), which are designed to adaptably contain partial loads, but being generally of a simple planiform design are not suitable to encompass a plurality of passenger seats.
It appears that the challenge of transporting voluminous baggage safely within the passenger cabin of a commercial passenger vehicle has not hitherto been met. The present invention addresses this challenge with a simple, effective solution.